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Man who helped girlfriend kill her grandparents learns fate

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 22:15:04 +0000

Left: Lucas Anthony Walker (KOTV). Right: Deborah and Larry Dutton (Livingston Funeral Home).

An Oklahoma man was sentenced for killing his girlfriend’s grandparents and burying their bodies in their own backyard.

Lucas Anthony Walker, 22, was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for the murders of Deborah and Larry Dutton, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a Friday press release. Walker pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

The victims were murdered in their home in Dewey, about 50 miles north of Tulsa, on Dec. 19, 2022.

Their bodies were found the following month in their backyard, reported Andy Dossett of the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise.

Ring doorbell video showed Walker and Heidi Dutton dragging the bodies to the backyard, reported local NBC affiliate KSNW, citing court documents.

Walker’s then-girlfriend, Heidi Dutton, who was 17 at the time, told police she asked Walker to murder the couple, who adopted her as their daughter, “because she wanted them dead,” Dossett reported, citing police affidavits and preliminary hearing testimony.

“We kill them,” Heidi Dutton said she told her boyfriend during an interview with police, the newspaper reported.

More Law&Crime coverage: Man asked mom to ‘Give me a hug, because I am going to jail’ after shooting sister in face because he didn’t ‘approve of her lifestyle’: Police

She initially admitted to investigators that she killed her grandparents and that Walker helped her clean up, but later reversed her and Walker’s roles.

Walker confessed to shooting and stabbing Deborah Dutton and stabbing Larry Dutton to death, officials said.

The two reportedly spent the elder Duttons’ money before their arrests.

An obituary said Larry Dutton was a retired Master Staff Sgt. in the U.S. Air Force and former manager of the Lt. William M. Milliken Airport in Eureka, Kansas.

His wife was originally from Tennessee, a retired Staff Sgt. in the U.S. Air Force, and a former chef.

They were former churchgoers in Kansas. Congregants at their former church, Eureka United Methodist, were shocked.

“They’re shaken. They’re visibly shaken,” Rev. Linda Pope told KOKI. “How do we make sense of all of this, and how do we turn this over to a higher power? There, there’s just so many unanswered questions.”

Heidi Dutton’s plea and sentencing hearing is set for March 5, online court records show.

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Mom tried to kill daughter by throwing her down stairs: Cops

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:24:52 +0000

Jennifer Lynn Vargas (Grand Traverse County Jail)

A 42-year-old mother in Michigan has been arrested for allegedly biting her own daughter on the neck and strangling the child before throwing her headfirst down a flight of stairs.

Jennifer Lynn Vargas was taken into custody earlier this month and charged with one count of assault with intent to murder and one count of first-degree child abuse, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The incident took place just a few minutes before midnight on Nov. 8, 2024, inside Vargas’ home in Blair Township, according to a report from MLive. Blair Township is about 160 miles northwest of Lansing.

Per the report, troopers with the Michigan State Police responded to the home where they made contact with Vargas and the victim, who were outside in the driveway. Investigators then interviewed the two individuals separately.

The victim’s name and age have not been released, but police did clarify that she is Vargas’ daughter.

The victim reportedly told authorities that Vargas attacked her, hitting her several times, strangling her, and then throwing her down a flight of stairs.

Authorities reportedly noted that the victim had at least one visible bite mark as well as a cut on her hand which she claimed was the result of her and Vargas struggling over a knife.

In addition to her visible injuries, the victim also reportedly said that she lost consciousness multiple times due to being strangled by Vargas.

Emergency medical personnel transported the victim to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City for treatment while Vargas was taken into custody.

Court documents obtained by Traverse City NBC affiliate WPBN provided additional details about the alleged attack.

The victim reportedly told authorities that Vargas physically assaulted her for over an hour. During the attack, the victim said Vargas strangled her and slammed her head into the floor before finally tossing her down the stairs headfirst, court documents reportedly said.

After being thrown down the stairs, the victim reportedly said that she pretended to be unconscious. When Vargas turned away, the victim reportedly said she ran to a nearby bedroom and locked the door.

As the victim attempted to escape the home through a window, Vargas allegedly broke through the locked door, held her down on the bed, and strangled her again. While strangling the victim, Vargas allegedly told the victim “she was going to be sacrificed.”

Vargas is currently being held in the Grand Traverse County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond. A judge ordered her to have no contact with the victim and to stay at least 500 yards away from her.

Vargas is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing at 11 a.m. on Dec. 2.

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Congressional candidate threatened to kill opponent: Feds

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 01:16:31 +0000

Left: William Braddock looks through papers during a June 2021 hearing, Tuesday, in Clearwater, Fla. (Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP, File). Right: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., arrives before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Wilmington International Airport, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

A former candidate for Congress in Florida has been charged with threatening to kill his opponent — and eventual winner — U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in the 2021 Republican primary, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

William Robert Braddock III, 41, faces up to five years in prison if convicted, according to the feds. Although prosecutors don’t name Luna in the press release, she has previously filed for a protection order against Braddock. The defendant on June 8, 2021, allegedly threatened to injure and kill Luna and an associate during a phone call. Prosecutors say he said he was going to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make her disappear.

After making the threats Braddock allegedly fled to the Philippines where he was arrested and recently deported back to the United States.

Luna and Braddock were running for Florida’s 13th Congressional District to replace then-U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist after he vacated his seat for his unsuccessful bid for governor. Luna won the primary and then the general election. She filed an injunction against Braddock in June 2021 after he made the alleged threatening call and had been stalking her, the Associated Press reported.

“I do not feel safe and I am currently in fear for my life from Mr. Braddock,” Luna reportedly said in her petition.

Luna declined to comment on the indictment to Fox News but a spokesperson issued a statement that said she had been a target of numerous threats in general.

“Female members of Congress are disproportionately targeted for stalking, violence, and harassment compared to their male counterparts,” Luna’s spokesperson said. “This alarming trend points to a broader and more disturbing issue of violence in the political arena. Violence must never be tolerated.”

Braddock faces a charge of interstate transmission of a true threat to injure another person. This case is part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force which aims to address threats of violence against people in the political arena whether they be elected officials or election workers.

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Gang member used shank with Nazi symbol to kill inmate

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 20:50:09 +0000

Inset: Jason Corbett (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation). Background: The location Corbett and another member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang killed an inmate at High Desert State Prison in California. (U.S. Attorney’s Office).

A member of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood prison gang in California will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to stabbing to death an inmate for lying about being a member of the gang.

Jason “Jake” Corbett, 52, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for murder in aid of racketeering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.

A second co-defendant in the murder, Pat “Big Pat” Brady, 54, pleaded guilty on Jan. 3, and was sentenced to life in prison last month, prosecutors said.

Three others were found guilty of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) conspiracy, conspiracy to murder, murder in aid of racketeering, and multiple counts of drug trafficking in April 2024. A sixth defendant pleaded guilty in the drug trafficking conspiracy. Charges against a seventh defendant are pending.

Pequeen was murdered on July 20, 2018, at about 2:15 p.m. in the D facility at High Desert State Prison in Susanville prison as part of a “planned, coordinated hit,” court documents said. Susanville is about 300 miles northeast of San Francisco.

Pequeen was targeted not only because of his bogus claim about being a member of the Aryan Brotherhood but because he also owed a big drug debt at a previous prison, prosecutors said. He was killed after he began talking to Brady, as seen on prison surveillance video, officials said. While Pequeen was distracted by Brady, Corbett came up from behind Pequeen, removed a prison-made weapon, and began stabbing Pequeen repeatedly in the back, court documents said.

As Pequeen tried to flee, Brady removed his weapon from his waistband. Pequeen ran. Brady and Corbett chased him down. They caught him with the help of two others. Brady then stabbed Pequeen in the upper back.

Pequeen fell to the ground. Prison guards ordered all inmates to “get down.” But Corbett and Brady continued their attack, stabbing Pequeen repeatedly in the head, neck, and torso as Pequeen — bleeding profusely from his neck and torso — tried to defend himself against his attackers, who held him down and continued stabbing him.

As corrections officers closed in on the attackers, Corbett and Brady stood up, walked away, and dropped their weapons.

Investigators noted that one of the murder weapons had “SS” lightning bolts etched into its side.

“This symbol on one of the murder weapons is meant to send a message to other inmates that Pequeen’s murder was a hit carried out by the Aryan Brotherhood because the enterprise often uses symbols from Nazi Germany to demonstrate its strength within the prison system,” court documents said.

Pequeen was declared dead at about 2:52 p.m., 37 minutes after the attack began. His body had more than 10 puncture wounds in his head, neck, and torso.

Corbett and Brady had Pequeen’s blood on their inmate clothing and shoes, which were collected and preserved as evidence of the murder. Investigators believe that the attackers killed Pequeen to maintain their position with the Aryan Brotherhood. The stylized weapon was meant to send a message to other inmates who would defy the enterprise, court documents said.

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Child feared mom would kill her after poisoning charge: Docs

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 22:17:10 +0000

Yue Yu faces charges after allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid, prosecutors said. (Mug shot from Irvine Police Department; screenshot of her in the kitchen courtesy of Steven G. Hittelman of the Hittelman Family Law Group)

The daughter of a California dermatologist facing charges for allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid told a school counselor she feared her mom would kill her if she didn’t lie about it in court, court documents say.

Dr. Yue “Emily” Yu’s 11-year-old daughter, appearing to be distressed and tearful, told her school counselor in a private session last November that she feared if she didn’t lie about what happened, she would make her mom angry, the therapist wrote in court documents.

When the therapist asked why, the girl said, “Because what if she does what she did to my dad to me?”

The counselor then asked, “Are you afraid that your mom would kill you?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, according to court documents.

The allegations surfaced as Yu and her husband, Dr. Jack Chen, are in the middle of a divorce and custody battle.

Yu’s lawyer, David Dworakowski, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. But in court documents, he and his co-counsel said Yu “categorically denies having any violative communications with the children, much less coaching them about facts related to her defense in the criminal matter.”

“Over the past year of Mother’s parenting time, there has not been a scintilla of evidence that Mother, or Grandmother, attempted improper communications with the children,” the document said. “Nothing extraordinary has been seen by the monitors. Additionally, the evidence is that the children enjoy the parenting time spent with Mother, and it is evident that a bond exists between the children and Mother.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, Chen alleged his wife tried to kill him by poisoning his hot lemonade with drain cleaner after he started noticing a chemical taste in the drink in March and April 2022.

His suspicions were raised after he was diagnosed with two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and inflammation of his esophagus. He put up a nanny cam in the kitchen, which caught her three times taking the drain cleaner from under the sink and pouring it into his drink, court documents said.

Yu was arrested after Chen reported the incidents to the Irvine Police Department on Aug. 4, 2022. She faces three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, prosecutors said. Yu was released from jail after posting a $30,000 bond and faces a hearing in the criminal case in May.

Chen alleged years of verbal and physical abuse by Yu and her mother — the children’s grandmother — on their children and him, court documents said.

In court documents, the school therapist wrote that when the daughter came in to see her she described her mother using her phone to type lines for her. In one alleged instance about the drain cleaner used in the house, the daughter “acted out herself and her mom by changing voices,” the documents said.

The daughter said Yu would ask her, “and why did we have Drain-O in the house in the summer?”

“Because we had ants and dad wouldn’t buy ant traps,” the daughter was expected to say, court documents said.

Later, the therapist wrote, the daughter said her mother grabbed her by the arm and it hurt. She reported feeling scared to make her mom angry and didn’t know what to do about being asked to lie.

The daughter said when she lived at home with her mother, Yu would keep her up late and wake her up early to study for tests and practice piano.

She also reported her mother would sometimes unscrew the leg of a baby chair that mom would use to “beat” her, court documents said.

Her maternal grandmother told her and her younger brother to come over so she could hit them with the chair leg, documents said.

“If they ran grandma would chase them and beat them,” the documents said.

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White supremacists kill 2, including mom of 5: Prosecutors

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 15:26:10 +0000

Brandon Gerner, lower left inset, and Joshua Jones face charges in the deaths of Robert Riley and Ashley Williams, lower right inset. (Mug shots and crime scene screenshot via KOMO News; Williams’ photo via GoFundMe)

Two suspected white supremacists have been charged in connection with the killings of two people, including a mother of five and witness to the first murder, whose bodies were found in bushes by a dog walker who mistook them for trash in Washington state.

Brandon Gerner, 40, was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm in the killings of 57-year-old Robert Riley and 34-year-old Ashley Williams, according to King County prosecutors. He also faces first-degree animal cruelty in the killing of a horse shot point blank in the head in December, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Joshua Jones, 34, was charged with rendering criminal assistance, authorities said.

The killing allegedly happened in a “drug deal gone bad, The Seattle Times reported a now-dead suspect reportedly told investigators.

Gerner allegedly instructed that man, Kody Olsen, to shoot Riley before Gerner went into a trailer, found Williams and repeatedly stabbed because she was a witness who prosecutors said was “simply present at the scene,” according to charging documents obtained by Law&Crime.

Local Fox affiliate KCPQ reported Olsen shot her when the knife broke. Gerner later allegedly denied to investigators that he stabbed Williams and fingered Olson as the killer of both victims, Spokane CBS affiliate KREM reported. The suspects also allegedly killed a dog on the property, court documents said.

After, they allegedly drove the bodies elsewhere and ditched them on the side of a road.

The bodies were found near the Rock Creek Natural Area under trash and debris on Nov. 16 after a man walking his dog called 911 about a possible body.

“There is quite a bit of garbage covering the one body we could see,” King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Eric White told NBC affiliate King5. “They’re taking a methodical approach to check for evidence in and around before they actually remove the trash to determine closer what we have.”

Mark Bullard told King5 he was walking his dog when he spotted what he initially thought was a pile of trash. When he looked further, he found much more and called 911.

“I’m like looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Huh, is that a mannequin?’ And I looked again, and I was like,’ Huh, no.’ And so I started hollering, you know, thinking, ‘Are they alive?’ Ya know, ‘What’s going on?’” he said.

Williams was the mother of five children. A GoFundMe page set up by the adoptive mother of her two youngest children said she would be deeply missed.

“Ashley was a mom, a sister, a daughter, and a friend to so many,” the page said. “Her sister Angela would be very grateful for any help you can give toward Ashley’s funeral expenses, as Ashley’s family members were not prepared to deal with her untimely death.”

After the double murder, more bloodshed occurred. One of the suspects, Olsen, 45, died in December, about a month after the killings, days after a shootout with Pierce County sheriff’s deputies pursuing him for DUI in Tacoma.

After Olsen’s memorial service, Gerner allegedly shot a horse named LeMon, in what the Times reported was a “sacrifice to Odin,” the Norse god.

LeMon’s owners woke up to find him dead from a gunshot wound. A neighbor’s surveillance video captured a white car driving by shortly before midnight on Dec. 16 and the sound of a possible gunshot. The video did not capture the shooting, officials said.

Embedded below is an emotional Facebook post, a letter to LeMon from his owner posted on Thursday after news about the arrest broke:

Gerner has a history of run-ins with the law, court documents said. He was sentenced on Feb. 14, 2001, after being convicted of attempt to elude, assault in the second degree, burglary in the first degree, assault in the third, and unlawful possession of firearms. He was released on March 20 of last year after serving 22 years, court documents said.

He was reportedly a founder of a white supremacist prison gang called Omerta, King5 reported.

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Arizona Dem resigns after threatening to kill lobbyist

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:45:19 +0000

Leezah Sun appears in her official portrait. (Arizona State Legislature)

A member of the Arizona state legislature resigned on Wednesday just before a vote likely to result in her expulsion from the chamber. The resignation comes just days after an ethics panel determined the now-former elected official threatened to kill a city lobbyist.

Leezah Sun, a Democrat, previously represented Phoenix as one of three members of the Grand Canyon States’s Legislative District 22.

During a House Ethics Committee hearing last week, two lobbyists testified Sun told them if she saw the other lobbyist in question at a conference held in August 2023, she would physically harm her.

“I will b–––– slap her, throw her over the balcony and kill her,” Sun said, according to the witnesses. The panel, in turn, endorsed that narrative.

Sun consistently maintained she never said anything other than threatening to “b–––– slap” Pilar Sinawi, according to AZ Central. Sinawi is the chief government affairs officer, a lobbying position, for the City of Tolleson — a small town 10 miles due west of Phoenix.

The five-member ethics committee made up of three Republicans and two Democrats, issued a report siding with the witnesses on Tuesday, according to Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ.

There was, however, a small dispute between witnesses Liz Goodman and Kayla Destiny Ruiz Davidian.

Goodman testified that Sun said: “‘I will b–––– slap her, throw her over the balcony’ — and there was a visible balcony from where we were sitting — ‘and kill her,”” according to the Arizona Republic.

Ruiz testified that she heard essentially the same thing — but with the addition of a four-letter word starting with “F.”

“Is there an extra f-word in there that maybe we’re just adding in or missing,” Rep. Travis Grantham asked Ruiz.

“The f-word was said,” the lobbyist reportedly replied. “I’m positive she said she would (expletive) kill her.”

Sun said there was not even a balcony at the Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort & Spa where the conference was held — which Sinawi did not even attend. During the hearing, however, a committee member reportedly pulled up a photo of a balcony at the hotel on their phone.

The ethics complaints against Sun were filed in November 2023 by four of her fellow Democrats: House Minority Leader Lupe Contreras, House Assistant Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, and House Minority Whips Nancy Gutierrez and Melody Hernandez.

The balcony threat was not the only incident cited in the complaint, two hearings on the matter, or the final report.

Sun also tried to use her status as an elected official to interfere in a child custody case in June 2023, the report says, according to independent Phoenix TV station KTVK and local CBS affiliate KPHO — which collectively broadcast together as “Arizona’s Family.”

In May 2023, Sun was also found to have become verbally aggressive with the city of Tolleson employees — including Sinawi — which led to those employees obtaining a restraining order against her.

Sun was also found to have engaged in a “pattern of abusing her official title and position” over a meeting with a school district superintendent where she suggested she could have “anybody investigated for any reason,” the TV station reported.

The report took particular interest in how Sun reacted to the allegation about threatening to hurt the lobbyist.

“Representative Sun offered that if she had actually meant to cause Ms. Sinawi harm, she would have actually harmed her,” the report said. “But she offered no different response after the witnesses provided their first-hand accounts, nor did she address the fact that she admitted to saying she would assault the Tolleson official. To the contrary, Rep. Sun described being ‘tickled’ by the allegations made against her.”

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Teen girl hired boyfriend, 2 others to kill her parents

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:56:59 +0000

Nathaniel Maloney, in the jail jumpsuit, is led out of the Tazewell County Courthouse after he pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (WMBD)

A 20-year-old man and his 17-year-old girlfriend will spend the next six decades behind bars after they formulated a plan to kill her parents, court records show.

The couple, Dahlia Bolin and Nathaniel Maloney, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, at the Tazewell County courthouse near Peoria, Illinois.

According to a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Department responded around 9:15 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2021, to a home in Mackinaw for a shots fired call. When deputies arrived Bolin met them outside and told them someone shot her parents. Deputies went inside and found Rebecca and Douglas Bolin shot. First responders pronounced Rebecca Bolin dead while they rushed her husband to the hospital. Douglas Bolin told deputies an unknown person shot him five times. He survived.

Dahlia Bolin, then 15, told detectives she was in the basement when she heard footsteps followed by several gunshots. But after further questioning she admitted she set the whole thing up. She said she hatched a scheme with Maloney and their pals Sage Raeuber and Andre Street to murder her parents, the affidavit said. Dahlia Bolin gave Maloney and Street her father’s guns before the shooting. Raeuber allegedly drove Maloney and Street to the Bolin house. They went inside and shot the husband and wife who were sitting on the couch.

Prosecutors said at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing that the initial plan was just to kill Douglas Bolin and beat up his daughter to make it look like a botched robbery, local CBS affiliate WMBD reported. The four planned the whole thing out in a group text message thread, which authorities recovered, and FaceTime chats, prosecutors said. The younger Bolin had offered them $100,000 out of her parents’ life insurance policy if they carried out the killings. She and her father had been having problems which made her want him dead.

Maloney and Street entered through the basement of the house where they saw Dahlia Bolin. Prosecutors reportedly said the other suspects described her as “giddy, and almost jolly like on Christmas Day.”

Instead of following the plan, Maloney and Street wounded Douglas Bolin and killed Rebecca Bolin and ran away before they could make it look like a robbery, according to prosecutors. Raeuber served as the getaway driver. The quartet were in custody by the next day.

A judge sentenced Maloney to 66 years in prison. Dahlia Bolin and Street, now 19, were juveniles at the time of the murder but were charged as adults. The judge sentenced Dahlia Bolin to 60 years in prison and Street to 55 years behind bars. Raeuber, 21, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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Man admits to trying to kill cops with blade in Times Square

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 05:40:12 +0000

Trevor Thomas Bickford, seen in a body camera image on the bottom right, admitted to attacking U.S. officials with a machete in Times Square on Dec. 31, 2022. (Photos via DOJ)

A man radicalized by a fundamentalist vision of Islam admitted to an attack with a “machete-style” blade on NYPD officers as thousands gathered around Times Square to watch the ball drop during New Year’s Eve 2022, federal prosecutors said.

Trevor Thomas Bickford, 20, entered his guilty plea on Thursday to multiple counts of trying to kill three officers, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

“Last New Year’s Eve, Trevor Bickford attacked courageous NYPD officers protecting those celebrating in Times Square as part of his effort, as he later told law enforcement, to commit jihad in New York City,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Today’s guilty plea should serve as a warning: terrorists who target and attack law enforcement and endanger the American people will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said he tried to murder three NYPD officers.

“Bickford targeted the iconic yearly celebration to carry out brazen acts of violence and hatred in the name of jihad,” he said. “Bickford, as with countless others who have carried out acts of terrorism in support of misguided ideologies, is now going to spend lengthy time exactly where he deserves — in federal prison.”

As reported by Law&Crime last January, the machete-like weapon known as a “kukri” that Bickford used has a sharp curve, is more than one foot long, and is reputed to be a national symbol of Nepal.

A still frame from police body camera footage embedded in Bickford’s criminal complaint appeared to capture the suspect in the act.

Bickford had been about 10 blocks north of One Times Square at around 10:10 p.m. Eastern Time on New Year’s Eve at the access checkpoint near 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue, according to the complaint.

Federal and state law enforcement had been protecting the area when Bickford allegedly approached an unidentified “Officer-1” and shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” Bickford then struck that NYPD officer with the kukri, according to the complaint.

“Bickford then attacked Officer-2 and Officer-3, striking each of them in the head with the kukri,” the complaint continues. “After being attacked, one of the officers was able to create some distance between himself and Bickford and shot Bickford in the right shoulder, thereby stopping the attack. Bickford was then taken into NYPD custody.”

Prosecutors say that all three officers had to be taken to the hospital.

“One officer suffered ringing in his ears, pain to the back of his head, and a laceration, where Bickford had struck him with the handle of the kukri,” the complaint states. Another officer suffered a skull fracture and laceration on the back of his head and received stitches. The third officer suffered lacerations to his forehead and also received multiple stitches.”

The FBI believes the attack was the culmination of a radicalization for Bickford that had spanned only a few months. Bickford allegedly “began accessing and consuming materials espousing radical Islamic ideology” in the summer of 2022, including the teachings of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a radical cleric prosecutors describe as a spiritual mentor of al-Qaida.

“Over the ensuing months, Bickford radicalized, devoting himself to violent Islamic extremism and waging jihad,” the complaint states.

In November 2022, Bickford considered going “overseas to support the Taliban and took steps towards traveling to, among other places, Afghanistan” — and he later expressed that interest to his older brother, a soldier in the U.S. military, according to the complaint.

Bickford eventually thought the brother “joined the ranks of my enemy” and told him so, a footnote of the complaint indicates.

Prosecutors say that Bickford already had been on the FBI’s radar on the month of the attack because of concerns from his family members.

“Specifically, according to certain of Bickford’s family members, Bickford had recently converted to Islam and begun frequenting mosques in and around Maine and New Hampshire, where Bickford resided with different family members,” the complaint says. “Bickford also began researching the Taliban and expressed interest in traveling to Afghanistan to join the Taliban. Bickford purchased a crossbow that he planned to bring with him to Afghanistan. Bickford believed that he was obligated by the Islamic religion to practice shooting that weapon every day.”

The FBI says that Bickford booked a flight to Jordan for Dec. 12, 2022, which he ultimately did not board. Bickford announced his motive in an interview with law enforcement, authorities said.

“After being treated at a local hospital, during a subsequent Mirandized interview, Bickford declared that he carried out the attack for the purpose of waging jihad and that Bickford’s mission involved targeting military-aged men who worked for the U.S. Government and killing as many such officials as he could,” the complaint states.

Adam Klasfeld contributed to this report.

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Woman threatened to kill ex over rejected threesome: Sheriff

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 07:00:46 +0000

Cynthia Ann Ray (Lake County Sheriff’s Office)

A 38-year-old woman in Florida was arrested last week for allegedly threatening to kill her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend if the couple did not have a threesome with her. Cynthia Ann Ray was taken into custody on Christmas Day and charged with one count of aggravated stalking and one count of written threats to kill, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, deputies with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at about 8:30 p.m. on the night of Dec. 25 responded to a 911 call about a report of criminal mischief at a home located in Groveland. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders immediately encountered an adult male who identified himself as Ray’s ex-boyfriend and explained Ray had been harassing him in inappropriate ways.

The boyfriend prefaced his latest complaints by alleging numerous past instances in which Ray had allegedly threatened or wronged him in some fashion. For example, he claimed she had recently slashed the driver’s side tires on a truck his new girlfriend had recently gotten while the vehicle was parked outside his home. Then, after they replaced the tires, he claimed Ray came back a second time, punctured the new tires, and stayed outside the house honking her horn.

He also claimed Ray had shown up to his home unannounced multiple times in the past few weeks “without him wanting her to be there.”

The boyfriend then told deputies he had been receiving disturbing messages from Ray that day and showed them how he was receiving messages from Ray in real-time.

“He then pulled out his phone and showed the messages to which he had not replied, however, there were numerous messages in a short period of time,” the affidavit states. “The messages that he was receiving while we were on scene were over random topics but stayed consistent with (Ray) saying vulgar language to him and telling him she loved him. The defendant did send a message to the victim saying she wanted to have sexual intercourse with him and his girlfriend and if not, she was going to kill them.”

The boyfriend then sent a message back to Ray asking that she stop contacting him. She allegedly replied that she did not care what he wanted and she would continue to send him messages.

When deputies found Ray, she was inside of a tent put up on her mother’s property. She claimed she had not left the residence all evening, but deputies said the hood of her car was still hot from having recently been used. Inside of the car, deputies said they found a knife.

Ray was then placed under arrest and booked into Lake County Jail on $15,000 bond. She is currently scheduled to appear in court on the morning of Jan. 22, 2024.

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